Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain NE IN source for FHM,GSH,Papershell crays?

After reading several things and hearing about the possibility of getting all kinds of fish like BH and GSF mixed in with FHM. I'm hoping to find a source I can trust to have nothing but pure FHM. Also looking for a GSH and papershell cray source. I need quite a lot of FHM and it wouldn't be realistic to sort through it all. Thanks for any help.

How patient are you? If you are willing to wait an extra year, buy 100 FHM, hand sort them and in 1 year, you'll have as many pounds as you would have ever bought. In my opinion, you should wait a year anyways, to allow the crayfish to establish as well.

I would stock the FHM and crayfish this year and I'd also stock grass shrimp. Then next spring, I would stock a hundred brooder sized GSH.

If ya can't find a local source, these folks ship paper-shells anywhere.

I spoke to them once about shipping to Texas and they seem pretty nice.

They sell paper-shell crayfish from June to September

www.smithcreekfishfarm.com

http://www.smithcreekfishfarm.com/productdetails2.cfm?ID=18

Another factor to consider is the crayfish lay eggs once a year and minnows and shiner often spawn multiple times which means it actually takes longer to establish a strong crayfish population than minnows/shiners. Also many crayfish do not have as any eggs per spawn as minnows/shiners. sorting through a 1000 minnows does not take anywhere near as long as watching a ball game.

Jamie,
Talk with Mike over at Keystone Hatcheries in Richmond IL about the FHM & GSH. We've been pleased with all the fish they have delivered to us and their price. We're gettign 50# of GSH this spring off him for our lake along with some other species.

Water Fowl, it's my understanding that they (Keystone) won't deliver fish to Indiana (unless something has changed).

As I recall, Keystone had an issue that caused Indiana to deny them a license to sell in IN. I was told when getting approved for mine, not to source any fish brought into IN from Keystone.

Thanks guys for the leads. I've talked to smith creek and they don't have the crays available until a little later... I'd really like to get some early enough for a spawn this season. I probably could sort a few and be patient and that would be cheaper and as you said CJ would give my crays more time to establish.

I was just thinking that since the fish I am stocking are all going to be pellet trained that the pressure would be taken off the bait fish. Tell me if I'm wrong with this way of thinking... I hate to wait another year if I can be just as well off by stocking a little heavier and get the fish on pellets to start growing...

How many of each species of bait would you guys recommend for 3 ac if I was going to stock SMB in the fall? Couldn't I just get a big number of crays in the pond early in order to establish? I am going to have plenty of rock for habitat. Got 280 ton of rock in the pond and I'm still hauling...

Jamie,

As as past president of the Indiana Aquaculture Association, that tried to push for at least one fish pond supplier to take up shop in northern eastern Indiana, there just isn't one yet.

How far are you from Russiaville? I think American pond and Lake Management is down there.

The Indiana DNR has a list of suppliers in the state and the neighboring states here:

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3356.htm

Scroll to the bottom of the page for commercial fish suppliers.

I'm also sending you a PM of a fish supplier to avoid.

I get fatheads by the gallon from this supplier:

Myers Bait & Fish Inc
4530 Old 27 Pleasant Lake, IN 46779
(260) 475-5765

Many times you can find out who the supplier is of bait minnows in your area and buy large quantities from the supplier.

I'm about 1 1/2 hrs. away from Russiaville, which isn't bad so I'll check into American pond. I'll also check the other ones out.

Thanks for the info. Cecil

Not a lot of fish farms raise crayfish for pond stocking and the crayfish that they do have are often not papershells but invading species from streams or fish trucks.

Jones Fish has one of it's five locations in (Ft. Wayne, 5716 Industrial Road, 45825, 1-800-662-3474) which should be close to you. They have fatheads, golden shiners but no papershells. If you want golden shiners you should place your order now as they are only available once in the spring.

http://www.jonesfish.com/

John I'm not sure if the Ft.Wayne location actually holds fish. Anyone know?

Jones doesn't have fish at the Ft.Waye store, but do deliver there. Have you got fish from Jones in the past John? If so, how did you like they're fish? They seem to be pretty proud of them...

Anyone have any experience dealing with Rim-run-Pete fish farm in Muncie IN,or Clear Creek in Martinsville, IN?

So you might as well have fish delivered from near Cincinnati?

I'm not dissing any fish supplier but I'm not a big fan of long hauls and lots of stops for the survivability of fish after they are planted.

Clear Creek is a larger farm and has a larger selection of fish than Rim Run Pete Fishery. As always quality of fish often depends of many variables even with large fish farms. Cedar Creek does have a live delivery guarantee about their fish which relates to replacement of fish that die. Ask about deaths replacement policy after stocking. Fish replacement is a good feature, however one should take photos of dead fish as a 'paper trail'. Very few fish farms sell shiners because are relatively 'sensitive' fish and are hard to handle during seining, hold, and haul for stocking. Shiners will often die quicker than other fish species when both are 'handled' the same way. Extra care and good experience is required to make money selling shiners. A lot depends on how well shiner survive the 'handling & hauling process'. First rule is to buy them during cool weather and cool water conditions.

Yes Jones is pricey, but I've always had great fish from them if they are delivered. I've lost bagged fish picking them up from Ft. Wayne. They bring the truck to the store there and bag the fish for pick-up.

I stocked my forage fish from Jones last fall. I went to Cinci myself and arrived first thing in the morning when they opened. I got 10# of both fatheads and shiners. They weighed them into the bags, pushed out air, filled with O2, sealed bags, then double bagged, and loaded them in my vehicle. I then did an express run straight to the pond- 3 hrs away on a cool day. I lost perhaps a dozen fatheads / 20 shiners by the next morning- a number I felt reasonable.

They showed me their delivery trucks with the O2 tanks on the back to continuously oxygenate on their delivery runs. They were friendly and happy to show me their operation and answer all questions. The first person passed me off to a more experienced employee when my questions got too much. It was a slow morning so I wasn't inconveniencing them, but it felt like they usually do so.

I give them a positive rating all around.

I just talked to Eric at Clear creek and he seemed like a real nice guy. He said he could have minnows for me in a couple weeks, so I may just have to take a road trip down and get them.

Sounds like a pretty big operation as he said they have around 60 acres of water ponds with different species in each. I would like to check the place out any way so the minnows would give me a good reason to make the trip.

It will be helpful to other members here, if you return to this thread and provide feedback about all your experiences with Clear Creek Fisheries every time you deal with them. When at Clear Creek ask about crayfish availability. Often crays are a surplus nuisance item for fish farms when certain ponds are seined.

I just looked at my Jones' Fish Catalog and they do show dates when they are there for pickup. Sorry if I mislead anyone.

If you hadn't alerted me about this I might have driven up there to get some GSH for restocking if mine froze out this winter. I did drive over in Ohio to get my GSH a couple of years ago to.............

http://fwfarms.com/

It's a nice place. I brought mine back to Indiana but I'm not sure if that was legal or not.

Bill, I'll share my experience with Clear Creek and who ever I deal with in the process of getting the pond stocked. I agree this kind of feed back could be very helpful to others looking for a good quality source of fish. Also I did have a conversation with Eric about the availability of crayfish. He said they have popped up in some of his ponds off and on but for whatever reason they seem to be getting more and more scarce.

Crayfish are looking to be a bit challenging, at least to get them as early as I'd like to get them. Sources for them seem to be few and far between.

One thing that did impress me about Eric was his confidence that his FH were absolutely pure. He said we could sort as many as I liked, but wouldn't find anything other then fatheads. The price on the FH was a little high, but worth the extra money if they are in fact free of any off species of fish...

John, thanks for the info.

My pond is still frozen but within the next few days I will be able to tell how bad the fish kill is and if I need to restock. To add crayfish this year I am going to enlarge my minnow trap entrance holes to about 2 inches, bait with chicken livers and go to a local river.